Ethiopia is conducting a government-sponsored population resettlement but the
site selection exercise lacks the objectivity that GIS can provide. A GIS-based
site selection is performed in this study to identify settlement sites using national
data at the Wereda (sub-district) levels. The results show that the application of
GIS can yield satisfactory results even under conditions of data scarcity. Seven
Weredas are deemed highly suitable while another twelve are classified as suitable.
The list of selected sites includes many Weredas known to have received
settlers in the past. The selected Weredas also include those being targeted by the
government for land-leases to foreign agribusinesses companies. The lack of resources
necessary to mitigate all of the environmental dangers including accelerated
deforestation, wetland destruction, malaria, and flash-floods, point to serious
challenges ahead in making the Weredas selected in this study suitable for largescale
resettlement. It is argued, therefore, that population control measures with a
focus on fertility reduction would produce better long-term results.